Told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, the latest novel from bestselling author Samira Ahmed traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of familial burdens and cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.

August in Paris. This holiday with her professor parents should be a dream trip for budding art historian Khayyam Maquet-- American, French, Indian, Muslim. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life. Two hundred years before Khayyam's summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has 'gifted' her with favored status in his harem. Two lives: one to be uncovered; the other transformed. -- adapted from jacket